The car screeched to a stop near the trailer. Layla didn’t bother switching it off as she rushed out of it. Several vehicles were blocking their trailer and the neighbour’s trailers, and several mean-looking assholes stood around.
Two of them blocked her way when she tried to run up their short driveway.
“Nothing to see here, kid. Get back in your car,” one of them sneered.
She assumed the man she had seen that morning was their boss. Why were there so many of them, and why had he returned so soon? Maybe she should have just taken a chance and called the police, but she hadn’t wanted to hang up on Brit in case she could hear what was happening in the background.
She was still gripping her phone tightly, but the silence on the other end ripped her apart.
“What are you doing? This is my home,” she shouted.
“Oh, there’s two of you,” the man said with a grin. “Then, by all means, please go in.”
She didn’t stop to think about what he meant as she pushed past them and wrenched the trailer door open.
The mess from the broken table was still all over the small living space, and her sister knelt beside her father right in the middle of it. Two men stood behind them. She could see guns peeking out of their holsters. Guns! How did her father get involved with such people in the first place? Brit sobbed quietly, and her clothes were dishevelled, showing someone had roughly manhandled her.
Anger mixed in with her fear.
“Brit!” she cried, rushing forward.
The large man from the morning blocked her path, and when she tried to go around him, he grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her. A scream wrenched up her throat as the pain shot up her shoulder. Getting caught in the hold was a rookie mistake, but she could think straight when she could see how scared Brit was.
“Layla, it’s so good of you to join us. Please let her through,” the greasy man from the morning said.
The big man let her go and stood aside. She immediately joined her sister, pulling her protectively into her arms and glaring at the men who had invaded their home.
“It occurred to me after I left this morning that I didn’t introduce myself to you,” the greasy man said as he stood from the sofa and walked to her. “Costas Markopoulos. I can’t wait to get to know you better.”
“Please, just take Layla,” her father said. “She’s a hard worker; she’ll do anything you ask.”
The cold seeped into her body as she looked at the man who had fathered her. Brit’s sobbing got louder as she tightened her arms around her. How could he? He was supposed to value his children’s lives above his own, but he had just given her away. For what, twenty grand?
“Oh, believe me, Gerald, I’m taking her, too,” Costas laughed. “Your girls are trash from the other side of the tracks; they won’t earn me much. But maybe I’ll have a chance of recovering my money quicker with both of them working for me.”
“Don’t touch my sister,” she warned him.
“I’ll touch her, Layla. I’ll touch her a lot,” Costas grinned before returning to the sofa.
Her body trembled with fury. All these years trying to ensure that Brit didn’t suffer from her broken home life, and this man had come and ruined it all in a day. If he thought she would let Brit become his whore...
“And you will do everything I say, Layla, or I’ll kill your sister before I kill you,” Costas continued.
“She’s only seventeen. Please let her go,” she whispered.
She didn’t like begging, but these vile men had surrounded them, and they were outnumbered. She had to think smart. For a long time, she had been Brit’s provider and protector, but this had never been a scenario she could have prepared for. Being betrayed by their blood. Being abandoned by both parents.
“No. But I’ll let you pack a few things, so hurry and do that while I speak to your father.”
As of that day, Gerald Carlisle was dead to them. He was not their father. She glared at him as she helped Brit to her feet, and the coward didn’t even have the guts to look her in the eye. But she knew her father had always favoured Brit, even though he’d never been much of a father. To some extent, his distress over losing Brit was genuine.
But Brit wasn’t going anywhere. She would make sure of that.
She pulled her sister to their bedroom but one of the men followed.
“Start packing,” she said.
“But Layla—”
“Pack a bag, Brit,” she said, using her firm tone to show Brit she wasn’t playing before pulling two bags from their small wardrobe.
Brit watched her for a moment before hesitantly starting to do as she had been told. Her sister followed her lead as usual, and she hoped Brit had picked up that she had a plan as they packed only the essentials and all their important paperwork. There wasn’t much that had sentimental value in the trailer, but she packed her photo albums and the folder full of all the special drawings and artwork Brit had given her over the years.
When she put her bag next to Brit, she gave her a look before she turned to the man standing in the doorway.
“I need to get toiletries in the bathroom,” she told him.
The man rolled his eyes and stood aside to allow her past him. Their bathroom was so small that he didn’t even question her when she closed the door to reach the cabinet behind it.
She got the toiletry bag out because they would need it. And then she pulled a panel off the back of the tub. It was dark and dusty under it, but she carefully felt around until she found what she was looking for. It made a slight scraping sound as she pulled it towards her.
“What are you doing in there?” the man outside shouted.
She held her breath, waiting to see if he would just barge in. When the door remained closed, she hid her weapon in the waist of her jeans behind her and then pulled the door open. And then she realised why the man hadn’t followed her into the bathroom. He was busy ogling her little sister!
With her anger building again, she looked down the short hallway to see the other men working over her father, too distracted to notice her.
The man in front of her didn’t see her coming, either, as she pulled the gun out from behind her and brought it down hard over his head. He fell to his knees in the bedroom, disoriented, and she whacked him again. She couldn’t afford to waste bullets when they were so outnumbered.
It had been eleven years since she had assumed the role of protector. She had taken that seriously. No one was taking her sister anywhere.
She pulled the unconscious man further into the room and closed the door before she took his weapon and handed it to her sister.
“What are we going to do?” Brit whispered.
“If we can take out the men in the lounge, we can go through the kitchen window. I don’t think anyone is guarding the back. Stay here.”
It wasn’t much of a plan, but they would have to think on their feet. She hugged Britney quickly before walking back to the door and easing it open, cringing every time it creaked. She had almost got it open all the way when an enormous fist swung in her direction. And then there was nothing but darkness.
Layla’s head was pounding. She winced when her eyes opened against the light and tried to cover them, but she couldn’t move her hands. Sounds of a moving car and quiet sobs filtered through her muddled head. And then it all came rushing back. She forced her eyes open again and found her hands tied behind her. Someone had also tied her feet together. They must have thrown her into the back of a van because it wasn’t just her head that was painful. There was something sharp digging into her back. “Layla?” At the sound of her sister’s scared voice, she turned her head and saw her on her side, also tied up. “Shh. It’s okay,” she whispered. But Brit wasn’t stupid. She would know it wasn’t okay. Neither of them knew who this man was and where he was taking them. They didn’t even know if he would keep them together for much longer. Fear filled her and muddled her thoughts even more. Brit was all she had, and she had failed her. “I don’t know what they did to Dad,” Brit whispered. “I’
She was still bleeding. The metallic scent of fresh blood assaulted Jax's nostrils, and the moment he stopped the car in front of the hotel, he shoved the door open and got out without looking back. She’d been hurt, and all his wolf wanted to do was make her feel better. Take care of her as a mate should. The scent had Jax so wound up he had to ball his fists and concentrate on keeping Cain under control. It had taken everything in him not to chase after the last of the men who had taken her from her home and tied her up. He wanted to rip them apart like the others for daring to touch her. He hadn’t lost control like that in a long time. If he gave in to Cain, the demented wolf would do just that. It would take little effort to hunt them down. The attendants opened the hotel's wide double doors the moment they saw him approach the entrance. But he could sense Layla’s hesitation behind him as if somehow this cursed bond had already taken root even though he had no intention of mark
Layla pulled the folder towards her and then looked back at the man. She didn’t even know his name, but he’d offered her this baffling deal. Brit was terrified. Her little sister was trying to act strong but she could see it. Their lives had changed for the worst tonight. Costas would still try to find them and use them. Going on the run was their only option. But she had no money, and as small as it was, Brit's college fund was sacred. She couldn’t dip into it if she had another option. And even if she did, it wouldn’t take them far. “Please sit down, Layla,” the man said. He was right. He was her only hope to save her sister. But would she give a child away to save another? She sighed as she pulled a chair across from him and looked down at the folder again as she sat. The knife she had commandeered earlier was comforting in her pocket, but she sensed it wouldn’t do much good here, or Jackson wouldn’t have let her keep it. “How do you know my name?” she asked. “I looked into
Layla sat in the back of the car exactly an hour later, feeling like Jackson King had bulldozed her. Everything had happened too quickly. Jackson had come back into the room with a gigantic man dressed in all black, who he’d introduced as the head of Brit’s security. Who was Jackson to pull something like this that fast? Why did he have bodyguards on call? His earlier statement about needing to keep her safe went around in her head until it dawned on her that she’d dropped herself into some deeper shit than merely Costas Markopoulos. When she imagined someone in the Mafia or other criminal organisations, they looked just like Jackson. An air of authority around them and expensive suits that were a world beyond Costas’ cheesy suit, hairstyle, and gold chains. Though Costas had turned their lives upside down, it felt like he was nothing compared to Jackson King. She'd screwed herself over by agreeing to this. She could feel it in her bones. Fear seeped through her whole body as she r
Jackson had already sent a message to Diedre, the pack witch, through his Gamma, so the woman was already waiting in the lobby when he walked into the packhouse. “This isn’t right, Jax. You’d have to confine her to her room or the basement because she would know the truth the moment she stepped out of the house,” Dylan said as he followed behind him. He refrained from rolling his eyes. Dylan had been mindlinking variations of that the whole drive home—he was giving him a headache. But he couldn’t get mad at his Beta for repeating something he had enforced for years since he had taken the throne. If they were lucky, it wouldn’t take long to get her pregnant and maybe by then, Cain would accept sending her back to the hotel. “You should have just let her run off. She’s going to be a handful—” “Enough!” he growled. It was Cain who made that command. Dylan felt it and shut up, but even with that submission, he still had to push his wolf back down to stop him from going after his fri
Layla inhaled a sharp breath when she heard his words. He didn’t even look like the words he’d said bothered him. A prisoner?And then Jackson closed the door. The sound of the locking door spurred her into action, despite how dangerous the whole place felt. She rushed forward and tried the handle, hoping she had just heard things, and this man hadn’t really just locked her in a room. But the handle didn’t turn. She tried it several times before she banged on the door.“Let me out, you fucking bastard! This wasn’t our deal!” she screamed.Panic welled in her chest again. She’d put herself in this situation because she’d been desperate to keep Brit safe. Jackson had known she would agree to anything. He had taken advantage of her. For someone who had claimed to hate people who went back on their word, he was doing the same thing. He’d said she wouldn’t be a prisoner! Jackson had made her think she would be free to come and go.She banged on the door again, ignoring the pain it caused.
Jax couldn’t close his eyes for a single second. He could still smell her. One touch and Layla had been putty in his hands, despite her obvious anger. She’d been turned on, causing an inexplicable hunger to rip through his body. He could still smell how wet she’d been. And all he’d wanted to do was rip her clothes off and bury himself in her body. The need had almost floored him.He punched his pillow several times and turned it over, but he still felt uncomfortable. It felt like he was trying to sleep on a bed of nails just because every cell in his body was urging him to return to Layla’s room.He knew it was the fucking mate bond. It made people stupid, made them look twice at someone they would never have wanted before. When he’d seen what the mating bond had done to his father, he hadn’t wanted that fate for himself. To be at the whim of unreasonable emotions? To put one person above himself? Above the pack? No, that was never something he’d wanted. Learning that leaving an
Wolves howling way too close for comfort woke Layla up with a start. She sat up in the comfortable bed, her heart pounding, looking at the unfamiliar surroundings. And when the previous day's events registered, she shot out of bed and rushed to the nearest window.Bloody wolves! She was going to get killed in her sleep!Her hand trembled as she pushed the curtain aside and peeked out. The room they had given her had a view of the front of the house where they had driven up, and she could just about make out the gates in the distance. There wasn’t even a hint of dawn in the sky, but the moonlight through the trees cast eerie shadows that gave her a horror movie vibe. No wolf eyes like before, though. If she hadn’t heard that terrifying growl in that infirmary, she would have believed she had just imagined those eyes. They had looked all wrong, for starters. Wolves didn’t have glowing blue eyes. Not in these parts, anyway.Were the wolves beyond the gates, or did they roam the grounds f